Singapore Semester Exchange Reflection

My STEP Signature Project was a study abroad exchange at Singapore Management University in Singapore during Spring 2018 term. This allowed me to study in a foreign institution, taking business classes according to East Asian standards, difficulty, and expectations. In addition, on my free time I was blessed with the opportunity to travel around Ease and Southeast Asia, touring the countries. All in all, with the help of the STEP fund, I immersed myself in East Asian culture, learning a variety of things from global business customs, networking globally, enhancing personal growth, all while having an experiential academic focus.  

One critical transformation that occurred while studying abroad was me becoming extremely independent. When you travel abroad alone with no family, friends, nor connections, you’re really experiencing and tasting what it feels like to enter the “real world”. You get a sense of being a real adult, where you’re held accountable for all your actions, you get to make critical decisions and reap the rewards or face the consequences of those decisions, and lastly nobody is there anymore to hold your hand and baby walk you through the steps if you get stuck. This was a terrific transformation, for this will help me be independent in the workplace. This has taught me the valuable skills of self-dependency, problem solving, and allowed me to be less spontaneous, and more rational in my thinking and decision-making processes.

Marina Bay Sands

Another transformation that took place was my outlook on how happiness is derived in life, which really helped me understand what I wanted from myself, and what I wanted out of life. When you travel abroad, you get too immerse yourself into a variety of socioeconomical environments. From the poorest slums of Manila to the wealthy mansions in Singapore, you get to see how drastically different of how people live day to day. Through this, you appreciate the little things in life. One example is when I was in Malaysia, and we had to use squat toilets, that was literally a hole in the ground with flies and mosquitos trying to bite your butt. Switch back to Singapore, where I studied, and we had lavish sitting western toilets with bum guns. If I hadn’t seen the conditions of Malaysia, I never would’ve appreciated nor been so happy to see a western sitting toilet. Another example was the pollution in Beijing and Seoul. Until I was surrounded by smog and grey skies, I didn’t appreciate how clean Singapore or the USA was. It’s little things like this that make me appreciate the pollution-less blue skies, clean drinking water, and air conditioning. From this experience, I realized I live an extremely blessed life in the USA, and that I don’t need much to be happy, just life’s basics.

During my exchange, I was blessed to travel to 8 other countries: China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. While in these countries, I noticed something odd. While in my host country, Singapore, I immediately the differences of work life culture. Singaporeans work VERY hard, and they’re extremely detailed and focused in what they do, whether that’s school or work. In the end, it seemed like they were just chasing dollar bills, for the harder and longer they worked, the more money they could earn. However, not many of them seemed happy, and many hit the bars after to “relive stress”. But when I travelled to foreign neighboring countries, such as the Philippines and Bali, the people seemed much happier, and to put it bluntly, the people in these countries were living in poverty.

Marina Barrage overlooking all of Singapore

As I reflected more and more on why this was, I came to the realization that first world countries like the USA and Singapore all enjoy the luxuries that money comes with (and that money is derived from hard work). However, money doesn’t correlate to happiness, nor do material objects. On the flip side, poor countries that are second or third world, like the Philippines and Vietnam are much happier due to the simplicity and enjoyment of actually LIVING. One of the days I was walking around downtown Manila and there were a group of boys age 5-10 just playing with a plastic bag and some stones on the side of the road. Authentic giggles and smiles cracked their faces. This made me sad, but happy at the same time. I later did some research into this and found out that although the Philippines is an economic disaster, with many living in slums with no running water, the people are rated the 3^rd happiest in the world.

I came to the conclusion that though they don’t have much, they’re satisfied with the basics of life. And, when you have little, you appreciate the meniscal things given to you. You take what’s in the natural environment and make the most of it. From this, I was humbled, and decided that I don’t want to live my life chasing money. I want to live my life happy, enjoying the little things in life, just as those Filipino boys did with a plastic bag and rocks.

Exchangers from around the world!

On a wholistic note, the entire trip abroad made me a more independent person, which also made me happy to realize that I was becoming quite a responsible individual. Whether that was attending lectures at SMU, booking airline tickets and hotel/hostels, cooking on my own, or taking the public transit in countries which I didn’t even know the language, I felt like all of this matured me very quickly and made me self-dependent. I also learned that all it takes, when you’re lost or stuck, is to ask! People are more than willing to lend a hand.

This change is valuable in my life because academically, it had helped me realize that when I’m stuck or don’t understand a concept in class, all I have to do is ask. Before, I was that shy kid in lecture who understood some of the material but wouldn’t ask the prof for more clarification and spend hours at home trying to figure it out. Personally, I’ve seen that that life is beautiful, and life is very simple. The less you have, the happier you are. From the example of the Filipino boys playing with plastic bags and rocks, those boys don’t know what at Nintendo Wii is. They’ve never seen an xBox. However, they’re content and joyful with the simple objects they have. This should be an example for those who constantly work hard to buy the newest BMW but are still depressed. Simply put, you can’t gain happiness from material objects and this experience has made me appreciate what the world has to offer. Furthermore, I hope to personally contribute more to society by giving back to those who are less fortunate. After seeing the primitive conditions some of these people in Asia were living in, I feel like it’s my social responsibility to do all I can to help out, whether that volunteering, donating to charities, or lending a hand at homeless shelters.

Biking around Singapore on ofo!

Professionally, I have developed to see the world in a wholesome way, while I have become a self-dependent problem solver. In the work environment, if I ever get stuck on a problem or have a question, I will no longer be hesitant to ask. Additionally, this experience will help me see the work place through a multicultural lens. In the future, I plan to work abroad, hopefully in Singapore, so having this exchange experience will really help boost my resume as well as give me an edge on the competition.